Swamp walking up to my hips

Monday February 3, 2014
Midway Campground
Big Cypress National Preserve

 

Notes:  If you have not read the post on the EYES exhibit at the Coe visitor Center in the Everglades, I hope you will,  it’s an amazing set of art works.   Also if you are snake phobic, the first two pictures are of a water snake.  Hope you’ll give it a try.  It’s the only snake picture in the post.

 

 

We love walking IN the swamp.

Since we are only here 4 nights/3 days, we discuss our favorite to dos and come up with a 3 days plan.  We are lucky enough to arrive on Sunday so we can make the Monday swamp walk.  This is only offered on Monday and Saturday.  Better a week day we think.

We arrive at the Oasis Visitor Center at 9:30 and are a little early so we go over on the boardwalk and look into the canal to see who is out this morning.  Alligators of course and this brown water snake.  Wish I could have gotten a better picture of those eyes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Outside the VC we meet Ranger Melissa who shows us where we are in the park and where we are going.  She also gives us the rules.  Close toed shoes that won’t get sucked off in the muck and long pants.  We’ve done this “hike” before so we are well prepared.  The woman in orange in the picture is not.  She  has on sandals and doesn’t go.

 

 

 

Melissa provides “hiking poles” for anyone who needs them.  We learned previously hat these work better than our hiking poles. 

We head out across the road.  Melissa tells us this crossing is the most dangerous part of the hike.  Once on the other side we are in water immediately.   The water is much higher than it was last year when we did the hike.  It is actually easier to walk in the deeper water than it is in just the mud/muck.   Keep your eye on where the water is on folks pant legs.   It gets WAY better than this. 

 

 

 

This is what a cypress swamp looks like, saw grass, cypress trees and water.

 

 

 

 

Cypress are deciduous trees.  They lose their leaves in “winter” which they define as less light at more of an angle.  This is one of their seed pods.

 

 

 

A little further on, Ranger Melissa stops to point out perfect panther habitat. 

 

No way you could walk through this thick saw palmetto and other vegetation.  But the panther can.  Unfortunately this habitat is not very appealing to man who feels he needs access to everywhere.  A male panther needs 200 square miles of habitat.  So the loss of habitat to development and human access is even more of a threat than our cars which are a big one.  There are less than 200 panthers in all of the Everglades including the National Panther Refuge. At least half a dozen are killed each year on the highways running through the Glades with speed limits of 60mph +. What ARE the law makers thinking? I wonder why we must always have the “freedom” to do anything we want regardless of how it affects the others of all species.   I want more panthers.  For that to happen they must have the habitat and safety they need to live their lives naturally.

 

 

 

 

The water gets deeper and more fun the further into the swamp we go.

 

 

You can see the mosquitoes are no problem, David is rolling up his shirt sleeves.

 

 

 

We move into the cypress hammock.  The water gets even deeper and the air cooler.  Many more air plants and bromeliads.

 

 

 

 

 

There are a variety of flowers growing in the swamp.

 

 

 

Among the flowers in Big Cypress are some 30 species of orchids. Ranger Melissa points out a few but none are flowering.  This cowhorn or “cigar” orchid does have a seed pod though.  It is that bright green pod in the picture of the second orchid.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bromeliads and ferns are thick.

 

 

 

Our footsteps are mucking up the waters.

 

Notice the clear water in this fern picture and the chocolate water in the two that follow.  If you are the leader of the hike or out here on your own, you can see clearly in the water.  But many feet stir up the mud.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still chocolate water or not,  I’m a happy camper!! Water above my knees.

 

 

This little cypress tree didn’t get the message to drop its leaves.  They are feathery, almost fernlike.

 

 

We are approaching our goal, the gator hole in the center of the cypress hammock.

 

The water is getting even deeper.  I’m holding both my camera and my binoculars up.  How deep will it get???   I’ve never been swimming in a swamp before.

 

 

 

 

Remember this is David’s 4th camera so he wisely moves it out of his pants pocket and into his shirt pocket. How about the water level now.  All this rain has made this a great hike.  The resurrection ferns on the limb behind David are liking all this rain as well.

 

 

 

 

Our goal is an alligator hole in among the cypress and here we are.  The alligator is in residence, I can see it but s/he is on the other side of the hole back in a corner and out of range of my camera.   In very dry winters, alligators carve out these holes with their tails by thrashing around and invite others in to join them.  Some of those others become an occasional dinner.   But mostly they all live quite peacefully together.   We are far too many and far too big for anything but concern from the alligator. 

 

 

 

 

 

At the gator hole the water is as deep as it gets on me, so no swimming.  I had thought it might get up to my waist.  But it definitely gets the seat of my pants wet. 

 

 

 

This is our turn around point.  As we head back, the water level is quite varied.

 

 

 

 

The sun is blindingly bright as we turn back toward the visitor center.

 

 

 

What a beautiful habitat.  More flowers, more bromeliads.  They are pretty easy to spot with their bright colors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we approach then end, we are apparently going “up hill”.  HA! 

 

We know this only because the water gets more shallow, and the muck gets thicker and deeper.  It’s not nose bleed territory.

 

 

 

Both David and I spot shoe soles that have been taken by the sucking mud.  We joke that people lose their souls in the swamp.

He takes a picture of one.  I find a much more sturdy and  larger full black sole but don’t take a photo of it.  I do point it out to David though.  It’s bigger and more sturdy.  The jokes continue.

 

 

 

 

Here we are at the end of the hike. Do you think he’s had a good time?

 

 

I’m sure you guessed whose sole I saw.  

When we discover it, I ask David if he wants to go back and get it since it isn’t far back and I had set it off to the side so if the owner wanted it he could come back.   David decides that 20+ years out of a pair of hiking boots is good enough service and he’ll just replace them although they still fit well, are broken in just the way he likes them and seemed to have many more years of service.

 

 

 

Later, after he has tossed them in the trash and we are gone from Big Cypress, I remember that L.L. Bean products are guaranteed for life.   If we’d remembered that and sent them back, the company would have repaired or replaced them.  Sure wish I would have remembered earlier.   These were great boots and it would have been interesting to see what they would do.   L.L. Bean makes a great hiking boot.

 

 

Yet again, more rain.

 

We get back about 2:00 and the rains start just after that.   I think it would have been great to be in the swamp during the rains but lightning is a factor here in these flat lands.

 

 

The rains continue past sunset and into the night.  What odd weather for winter in Big Cypress.  No wonder the little cypress tree is confused.

 

 

 

We serve up a nice warm dinner of sweet and sour tempeh over multi-grained rice.  Tastes as good as it looks.

 

 

Oasis Visitor Center’s Two hour Wet and Wild Swamp Walk is our favorite thing to do in Big Cypress.  We take it every time we come for more than one night.   Maybe next time we’ll take the Florida Trail through the swamp on our own.  Then we’ll see nothing but clear water.   Thanks to Ranger Melissa for a great hike and for taking this picture.